Meridith was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. She received her BA from Connecticut College, and her MFA in Writing for the Stage & Screen from Northwestern University. Her plays have been developed and workshopped at The Kennedy Center, Curious Theatre Company, the NNPN National New Play Showcase, New Repertory Theatre, The Lark, The Greenhouse Theatre Center, Actor's Express, Kitchen Dog Theatre, and Chicago Dramatists. She was the NNPN Playwright-in-Residence at Curious Theatre Company for their 2010-2011 season, and is currently a 2012-2013 Dramatist Guild Fellow. She has taught playwriting and screenwriting at Northwestern University, Kenyon College, and Curious Theatre Company.
Meridith on...
The ProcessMy writing process is kind of all over the place. It's usually quite sporadic. Ideas are the hardest part for me. It takes me months to come up with the germ for a story, but once I have it, the writing just pours out of me. I’ll have these two-to-three-week periods where I write everyday into the early hours of the morning.
SatisfactionThe “flood” I described is the most satisfying part of my writing process. It’s a totally euphoric state. Everything around me disappears. You know how actors talk about losing themselves in a character? I love it when I actually lose myself in my writing. All of the problems and stresses I’m dealing with fade away and I become completely enveloped in the world of my characters.
KnowingIt was my sophomore year of college. I had just been cast as the Horse and Servant Number 2 in Connecticut College’s production of DR.FAUSTUS. My lines were, “Come, we go, my lord,” and “Nayyyyy.” Although, in the spirit of full disclosure, my nayyyy was eventually cut. I was instructed to simply gallop. I was devastated. At the time, I was positive I wanted to pursue acting professionally. That same semester I enrolled in my first playwriting class. Again, in the spirit of full disclosure, I think I initially fell in love with playwriting because I didn’t stink at it. I discovered my aptitude for playwriting at a time when I really needed to feel good at something.
Inspiration
I’m really drawn to plays, and playwrights, that seamlessly weave the personal and the political; writers like Caryl Churchill, Martin McDonagh, Tom Stoppard, and Bruce Norris.
The First TimeSeeing my work performed live for the first time was one of the best moments of my life. It was beyond exhilarating! It’s actually when I knew I didn’t want to be an actor anymore. I loved sitting in the audience and watching these characters I had written come to life right before my eyes. I had sketched them, but the actors breathed them into existence. Watching them on stage, they felt autonomous. I forgot that I had written the words they were speaking. That’s the best thing about hearing your work aloud...you finally get to meet your characters. While you’re writing a play, you’re sort of inside it. You don’t really have any clue what it looks like from the outside.
AdviceVery early on in your career come up with your definition of “success.” And try, with all your might, not to lose it. Don’t get distracted by what your friends are doing and adopt their definitions of success. And also, try not to let your definition of success be contingent on external milestones that you really have no control over. Simplify. Why do you love writing? Why do you love being in a room with other artists? Lastly, and I’m stealing this from [Rainer Maria] Rilke, “try to say what you see and feel and love and lose.” Oh, and one more piece of advice! Read Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. Right now.
For more information on Meridith's past, present, and future endeavors, check here.